Sandy Forces New Jersey to Use Paper and Email to Vote

In the aftermath of hurricane Sandy, there's some worry in New Jersey that people won't be able to cast their ballots on electronic voting machines. In the interest of preparedness, Gov. Chris Christie has authorized some funny alternative methods for people to exercise their right to vote.

The first one: paper. New Jersey voters could do it the old fashioned way by marking an X on a silly, old paper ballot like it's still the 1930s and they arrived at the polling station in a horse and buggy. National Guard trucks are being assigned to monitor polling stations without power and they'll be ready with paper ballots for people to do it "old school," on Tuesday, Christie said.

The state also declared anyone displaced by Sandy to be designated as an overseas voter, which gives them the right to cast their ballot by email or fax. The official instructions on how to vote this way from the Office of the Governor's website:

To vote electronically, displaced voters may submit a mail-in ballot application either by e-mail or fax to their county clerk. Once an application is approved, the clerk will electronically send a ballot to the voter by either fax or e-mail in accordance to the voter’s preference. Voters must return their electronic ballot – by fax or email – no later than November 6, 2012, at 8 p.m.

Note that there's no provision in place for people to prove they're displaced. But it's still a pretty resourceful way for the state of New Jersey to tackle the problem, and we applaud them for it. If this isn't the last stand for the fax machine, we don't know what is.